Library News Blog

On March 10, more than 30 students attended a session on Research Across Majors. A part of the Majors & Minors campaign, this student-faculty lunch was co-organized by Shelley Germana from SASP and Marta Bladek from the Library, who received the Faculty Student Engagement grant to provide pizza and refreshments. John Jay faculty, Professors Teresa Booker (Africana Studies), Ric Curtis (Anthropology), Samantha Majic (Political Science) and Dante Tawfeeq (Mathematics and Computer Science) shared their thoughts on doing research in and beyond the disciplines. Students deciding on a major or minor learned how research and its methods differ across fields and how the research skills they hone in college relate to their lives as aspiring professionals, engaged community members, and everyday consumers of information.

Associate Dean and Chief Librarian Larry E. Sullivan published the book The Brownsville Boys: Jewish Gangsters of Murder, Inc. (library record) in December 2013 with the Two Ponds Press. The book, with all its plates, framed, is on exhibition in the President’s Gallery through May 30 and was featured in the New York Times on March 20. His co-authored (with Brenda Vogel) article, “Reachin’ Behind Bars: Library Outreach to Prisoners, 1798-2000,” first published in 2003 and then again in 2009, has been reprinted in John Kleinig and Charles Sturts’ edited volume Prisoners’ Rights (Ashgate 2014). In January, Sullivan spoke on the importance of Special Collections for criminal justice libraries at the American Librarian Association Midwinter Meeting in Philadelphia. He is also Editor-in-Chief of the recently published (April 2014) Criminal Justice and Law Enforcement Annual: Global Perspectives (library record), to whichEllen Sexton and Maria Kiriakovacontributed articles.

On February 19, 2014, the College commemorated the 30th anniversary of the appointment of Benjamin Ward as the first African American New York City Police Commissioner. This was marked by a special Lloyd Sealy colloquium, moderated by Sam Roberts of the New York Times, with panelists David Scott, former chief of department at the NYPD, Herbert Sturz of the Vera Institute, and Martin Horn of John Jay College. It was preceded by opening remarks by New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton, President Jeremy Travis, Chief Librarian Larry E. Sullivan, noble’s Vice President Gregory Thomas, and Mary Ward-Markane, the daughter of Benjamin Ward. Larry E. Sullivan highlighted the Benjamin Ward Papers, a collection first donated to the Library in 2009 and later expanded in 2011 and 2012. A selection of these materials was exhibited, including letters to Ward from Governor Carey, Mayors Lindsay and Koch, commemorative photo albums of noble and NAACP events, and numerous photographs of Ward at different stages of his illustrious career. Apart from correspondence, photographs, articles and speeches by Ward, the Benjamin Ward Papers include the manuscript of Ward’s memoir Top Cop and a transcript of an interview with Ward by the Columbia University Oral History Office. Benjamin Ward, it must be recalled, assumed command of the NYPD during a period of heightened crime which he confronted with a vigorous campaign of drug-, prostitution- and gambling-related arrests. He came to national attention for his emphasis on community policing, which at the time was embraced across the country as a better approach to policing. His career was not without controversy as evidenced in the notorious 1988 Tompkins Park Square Riot that took place under his watch as Commissioner and his handling of a highly charged 1972 Harlem Mosque incident that occurred while he was the Deputy Commissioner of Community Affairs.

A selection of the Benjamin Ward Papers remains on display in the Niederhoffer Lounge of the Library.

Opium “does more honour to medicine to any other remedy whatever.” Charles Alston, professor of Botany and Materia Medica at Edinburgh University, wrote this statement in a 1742 article. Alston was the first person in England to grow poppies for his experiments and lauded in print all the beneficial effects of the flower. He did not, however, mention its addictive properties. A fellow Edinbourgeois, the surgeon Charles Young wrote one of the first treatises on opium partly in response to Alston’s uncritical praise of the drug. In the preface to his 1743 Treatise on Opium, Young said that “opium is a poison by which great numbers are daily destroyed.” Although Young was correct in his mention of opiate addiction, it didn’t stop him from using it or prescribing it to treat coughing, diarrhea, toothache, prolapsed hemorrhoids, and many other ailments. Most particularly, he advocated opium to alleviate “lowness of Spirits” and melancholia. Indeed so.

Young was an outstanding surgeon during the period of the Scottish Enlightenment. He was the only surgeon elected to the prestigious and very intellectual Ranken Club. He did not have a medical degree, but that was not unusual at the time. His medical practice and his philosophy were based in empiricism, which should be expected of a contemporary of David Hume. This empirical viewpoint is illustrated in the title of the book, where Young says his study is “founded Upon Practical Observations.”

The Sealy Library recently acquired Young’s important treatise on a drug used and abused for centuries. John Jay is one of three libraries in New York City to own this book, and the only non-medical library. Once again, we must emphasize the importance of such historical works to the study of our discipline.

The Archivists Round Table of Metropolitan New York, Inc. (A.R.T.) is pleased to announce its May 2014 Programming Event, developed and co-sponsored by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice's Department of Art and Music and Lloyd Sealy Library:

Book 'Em: Insider Theft from Libraries and Archives

Insider theft is a particularly difficult problem for libraries and archives. Employees who passed background checks when hired might have concealed collecting obsessions or might develop a gambling or substance abuse habit. Once motivated to steal, they know their institution’s security system – and its loopholes. And it can take years, and hundreds of thousands of dollars of irrecoverable losses, before insider thieves are caught. Our speakers will discuss their experiences discovering and investigating insider thefts from governmental, university, and private libraries and archives. They will analyze the security measures that failed in these situations and describe subsequent policy and technological changes designed to prevent further insider theft within a limited security budget.

Larry Sullivan, Associate Dean and Chief Librarian, John Jay College and former Chief of the Rare Book and Special Collections Division of the Library of Congress and former Library Director of the New-York Historical Society

Travis McDade, Curator of Law Rare Books and Associate Professor of Library Service, University of Illinois College of Law and author of Thieves of Book Row: New York’s Most Notorious Rare Book Ring and the Man Who Ended It

Jennifer Comins, Archivist for the Carnegie Collections in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Columbia University

A.R.T. would like to thank the John Jay College of Criminal Justice's Department of Art and Music and Lloyd Sealy Library for graciously co-sponsoring this program. Thanks especially to Erin Thompson, Professor of Art Crime in John Jay's Department of Art and Music, for initiating and coordinating this program.

John Jay students, here's your chance to win up to $3,000 for your research! This year's John Jay + Rubin Museum Writing Competition has upped the prize money. Get a free leg up — your library is here to help you out!

From the announcement:

John Jay College and the Rubin Museum of Art are happy to announce the 3rd annual John Jay College-Rubin Museum of Art Writing Competition.

Last year, seven students won cash prizes of $500 to $3,000 in the John Jay-Rubin Museum Writing Competition. This year, we are giving away $7,000 in total prizes. Now YOU could win up to $3,000 for writing a winning essay!

Info session

Attend a Spring Break information and preparation session, presented by Laura Lombard, on April 21st and April 29th during Community Hour from 1:45 to 2:35 pm in the Provost's Conference Room (room 621 Haaren Hall).

Topic: choose a work or set of works of art from the collection of the Rubin Museum of Art. Write an essay about the work (or those works) that explores how the piece or pieces define or express the idea of justice. As John Jay commences its 50th anniversary, it may be useful to reflect on our history as a college and a force for social change as you come up with the concept for your essay topic. Your essay may consider any of a wide range of issues, including but not limited to: justice as it relates to retribution and punishment; justice as it relates to death; justice as it relates to the possible differences between what gods and human beings consider fair; justice as it relates to violence and non-violence. [Check out the library's guide to Rubin Museum & art history resources, specifically created with this competition in mind.]

The essay must be between 1000 and 3000 words long. Each student entering an essay must submit five copies of the essay to Office of Fellowship & Scholarship Opportunities by no later than 5:00pm on May 2nd, 2014. The first copy of the essay must be accompanied by a detachable title page bearing the name of the student and the last four digits of his/her Social Security Number. The remaining pages of all copies of the submission must include the last four digits of the Social Security Number and no other identifying information. The Office of Fellowship & Scholarship Opportunities will accept submissions from April 7th through May 2nd. Winning essays will be selected by May 21st, with celebration to follow in the fall as part of John Jay’s 50th anniversary festivities!

What can we do to make this library better for you? More access to electrical outlets…Why are they still located in walls?

These were some of the questions and answers from our second triennial survey of “in-library use,” conducted November 18-23, 2013. 294 library users (90% undergraduates and 9.8% graduate students) took the time to fill out a paper survey handed to them at the Library entrance. The results showed that our library users are a serious bunch: 51% came to the Library to study or work individually; 44.4% used a library computer for academic/course work and only 11% used a computer for Facebook, YouTube or other “fun” activity. Almost all students engaged in multiple activities (see Chart 1). They also came often: 24.4% came to the Library 4 or more times per week and 47% came 2-3 times per week.

Our users rate our services highly: Our top rating went to quality of databases and electronic resources where we scored 4.4 out of a possible 5. Even where we were rated lowest—on availability of electrical outlets—our users still scored us 3.68 out 5. These results were very similar to what we found in our first survey in November 2010: the students who come to the Library come frequently, and they come because they like what they find here. (Other surveys, discussed in earlier issues of Classified Information, have shown that the student body as a whole thinks well of the Library).

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To get meaningful information from this survey about how we could improve our “in-library” services, therefore, we turned to the last, open-ended question, “What can we do to make this library better for you?” Out of the 294 respondents, 124 took the time to write something (a total of 191 separate comments/complaints), and from the number of exclamation points and the length of the responses, it was obvious that the students cared and wanted to be heard. (See Chart 2) When we coded the answers we found that the single largest source of complaint was the lack of Microsoft Office—21 students complained about that (11% of the comments), followed by the need for more computers (19) and more outlets (18). It’s striking (though not surprising in this era of mobile devices) that fully 9.42% of the comments were about outlets; one student said, “More access to electrical outlets, specially at desks. Why are they still located in walls? they should be conveniently placed on desks.” Comparing the 2013 comments with the 2010 comments, there were fewer complaints about noise and Library hours, but more complaints about outlets and computers, even though we had added both outlets and computers after the 2010 survey. Students also continued to ask for more space to study individually and in groups.

We were concerned to note that, in addition, there was an increase in the number of complaints about staff and about long lines, and we realized that our ratings on “customer service” had fallen slightly from 2010. We wondered if this change might be related to the establishment of community hour in 2012. To examine this more closely, we analyzed separately those surveys that had been filled out during community hour and found that, in fact, the students visiting during community hour rated the Library slightly lower on every single measure with quality of customer service dropping to seventh place from third among the community hour respondents.

So what did we do in response to what the students told us? We are increasing the staff at the Circulation and Reserve desks from 1–3pm; we have added Microsoft Office to 16 computers in the Reference area on the Library’s upper level; and we have put in a Student Technology Fee proposal for mobile charging stations to try to address the lack of electrical outlets. We cannot expand the walls of the Library, but we have made our space needs known to the College, and are converting stacks space to study space where possible. We continue to listen hard to the voices of our users.

The PBS Video Collection from Alexander Street Press assembles hundreds of the greatest documentary films and series from the history of the Public Broadcasting Service into one online interface. A core of 245 titles, selected for their high quality and relevance to academic curricula, covers many educational disciplines, including history, science and technology, diversity studies, business, and current events. This collection includes access to the films and series Frontline, NOVA, American Experience, Odyssey, and films by Ken Burns and Michael Wood.

For the first time, the John Jay Library is consolidating its unique digital resources into one online, publicly-accessible collection. The Lloyd Sealy Library Digital Collections will launch in the spring 2014 semester as a premier repository for digitized criminal justice history materials. Researchers will find audio clips of Ed Koch speaking about subway crime, mug shots of notorious Murder, Inc. criminals, trial transcripts from 1920s New York murder cases, and much more in the coming collections.

Research value

The Lloyd Sealy Library is well known for the strength of its criminal justice and social sciences collections. Under the leadership of Chief Librarian Larry Sullivan, formerly the Chief of the Rare Book and Special Collections Division at the Library of Congress, the Special Collections has grown particularly robust, providing valuable material for researchers of criminal justice history in New York City and around the world.

Since the turn of this century, the Library has put a great deal of effort into making these collections accessible online. The Crime in New York 1850-1950 project made available selected photographs from the Burton Turkus Papers and Lewis Lawes Papers, as well as hundreds of trial transcripts from the County of New York. The Library has also digitized nearly 100 rare books with the Internet Archive. In-house, we have made high-quality scans of items from the John Jay College Archives. For the first time, these digital materials will all be browsable, searchable, and downloadable in one place—in addition to brand-new material.

Prof. Jeffrey Kroessler, our Circulation Librarian, is contributing his in-progress project, Justice in New York: An Oral History. With the generous support of John Jay supporter Jules Kroll, Prof. Kroessler— sometimes accompanied by Prof. Sullivan—has interviewed dozens of New York City’s leading figures in criminal justice, including former mayor Ed Koch and former police commissioner Patrick V. Murphy. These interviews, rich as both historical reference and anecdote, are a vibrant resource for researchers and passersby alike. In the spring, the full interview transcripts, along with audio clips, will be available online for the first time in the Digital Collections.

More digital research materials are also on the way, the most timely of which are selections from the John Jay College Archives. As the College nears its 50th aniversary in 2014–15, the Library will digitize and catalog more materials from the College’s history. The Archives mea- sure 400 linear feet of records containing images of student life, news clippings, yearbooks, and more. Under the guidance of Interim Special Collections Librarian Ellen Sexton, and with support from other departments and offices at John Jay, a curated selection of materials from the Archives will be available in the Digital Collections.

Teaching with the Digital Collections

With more material available, the Digital Collections will be of high interest to researchers and fans of history—and also for teaching faculty. These rich online resources are an engaging and relevant gateway for students learning how to conduct research using primary sources. As the Library saw recently in the Murder Mystery Challenge, students can find great satisfaction diving into historical materials both gruesome (murder scene photographs) and enlightening (court case records). These materials give students the chance to grapple with the complexity and ambiguity of the historical record. Moreover, research today requires advanced digital literacy skills, and the Library strongly supports incorporating digital research in classroom assignments. Technical details The chosen content management system, CollectiveAccess, provides robust search and browsing functionalities with a focus on thorough metadata. The Digital Collections will mirror the Special Collections, with each physical collection manifested as one digital collection. Many items will be freely downloadable, following the Library’s commitment to public knowledge.

Stay tuned

The Library is working daily to improve the system and load in more material. We plan to launch next semester—keep an eye out for the launch announcement!